Third World Quarterly, Vol. 29, No.

5, 2008, pp 851 – 868

Pro-poor Tourism: a critique
DAVID HARRISON
ABSTRACT Tourism’s role as a development tool has increased over the past

three decades. Its contribution to poverty alleviation was ﬁrst noted in the 1970s, but this focus was increasingly blurred in theoretical debates over ‘development’ in the 1980s and 1990s. It resurfaced at the end of the 1990s with the emergence of ‘pro-poor tourism’ (PPT), deﬁned as tourism which brings net beneﬁts to the poor. In this paper the emergence of PPT is described, its main features outlined, and several conceptual and substantive criticisms are discussed. It is concluded that, while PPT is based on a worthwhile injunction to help the poor, it is distinctive neither theoretically nor in its methods, and has become too closely associated with community-based tourism. Rather than remain on the academic and development margins, it should be reintegrated into and reinform mainstream studies of tourism and development, and focus more on researching the actual and potential role of mass tourism in alleviating poverty and bringing ‘development’.

Pro-poor tourism in context After the Second World War economic growth and ‘development’ were considered vital for the Third World, and debates over the most appropriate theoretical frameworks, ideologies and policies continued for three decades. In the 1970s, for instance, the satisfaction of ‘basic needs’ was linked to the recognition that economic growth alone did not solve the problems of the poor,1 and Seers argued strongly that development was best achieved by alleviating poverty, reducing unemployment and inequality and, later, by increasing cultural independence and self-reliance.2 Such ideas were incorporated into the programmes of many international organisations, including the International Labour Organisation and the World Bank, both of which advocated ‘bottom-up’ approaches to development,3 while both the 1980 Independent Commission on International Development Issues (the Brandt Report) and the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Report) considered poverty alleviation a major development objective.4 It was soon recognised that international tourism, which had increased rapidly between 1950 and 1970, as indicated in Table 1, could play a key role in poverty alleviation. The World Bank led the way in the 1970s, ﬁnancing
David Harrison is in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism, University of the South Paciﬁc, Suva, Fiji. Email: harrison_d@usp.ac.fj. ISSN 0143-6597 print/ISSN 1360-2241 online/08/050851–18 Ó 2008 Third World Quarterly DOI: 10.1080/01436590802105983

851

7 55. an approach which is largely laissez-faire.5 1.3 58.8 4.8 15. Madrid: WTO. Data 2001–2005. in developing countries and.7 4.0 16.4 51.2 18. Madrid: WTO. in promoting tourism as one feature of private sector development.5 3.2 4. the ﬁrst of which is the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.3 4.5 58.1 21.9
176% 132% 78% 54% 23% 27% 71% 3% 70.7 16. formulated by the Earth Council in 1996 and adopted by the United Nations in 1999. including the Asian Development Bank (ADB).2 4.5 3.2 2. especially in the Greater Mekong region.
infrastructural projects and providing credit for foreign investment.DAVID HARRISON
TABLE 1.3 16. Current Travel and Tourism Indicators. WTO. especially as a means of involving community members as participants in local development projects.8 2. p 2.1
Regional average receipt per arrival 590 1080 890 790 710
Source: World Tourism Organization (WTO).6 and such UN agencies as the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).9 19.1% 10% 5%
Percentage share of international tourism receipts 3.6 7. which devotes considerable funds to tourism development. despite the closure of its Tourism Projects Department in 1979. 1991. and United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).3 4. further reinforced the programmes of numerous multilateral and bilateral institutions in promoting tourism as a way of alleviating poverty. only later moderating its involvement through concerns about tourism’s social and environmental impacts.8 4.5 16. International tourist arrivals and receipts. pp 2–3. Among the former are regional development banks. 2007.5 3.1 20.1 0. also led to an increased focus on tourism. the World Bank continues to have a crucial role in advising on (some would say imposing) structural adjustment programmes (SAPs).5 54.5 3. 2006.2 4. Compendium of Tourism Statistics. p 11.5 4.8 12.7 16.8 – – – 2 2.3 57. with the International Monetary Fund.8 18.1 17. while the latter include many national aid agencies. Tourism Highlights. selected years.3 18.4 4. In addition. and percentage share by region
Africa Year 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 1995 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2005 Total arrivals (million) 25 69 160 285 439 540 687 680 700 694 765 807 Total receipts (US$billion) 680 Average receipt per arrival (US$) 840 change over the period 2 1.6 18.6 0.1 4.3 0.5 And Agenda 21.2 16.2 66 72 70 69 60. The adoption in 2000 of the Millennium Development Goals.3 20.4 56.6 Americas Asia/Paciﬁc Europe Middle East
Percentage share of international tourist arrivals 30 24 23 19 21.6 56.7 852
. now Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). Madrid: UNWTO.

lays out the pros and cons of tourism as a development tool. liberalism. conceived as a major net earner of foreign exchange.11 with their views often coloured by their commitment to a range of theoretical (and fashionably changing) perspectives. His 1979 summary. along with Dilys Roe of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and Caroline Ashley of the Overseas Development 853
.12 While such approaches have undoubtedly broadened the debate. as valid now as three decades ago. leads to results consistent with this newly identiﬁed goal of development. where assessments have been made. community-based or ecotourist ventures. which reportedly epitomise genuinely ‘sustainable’ tourism development.CRITIQUE OF PRO-POOR TOURISM
Academic inputs When de Kadt’s path-breaking collection of papers was published.9
Contributors to his volume were divided over how far the poor beneﬁted from tourism.13 It is in this context. entrepreneurship and inter-sectoral linkages. characterised by high levels of local participation. also apparent since the early 1980s. statism and globalisation. And. It needs to be considered whether the deliberate and large-scale development of tourism. that the movement for ‘pro-poor tourism’ (PPT) emerged. has been to emphasise the contribution to sustainable development of ‘alternative’. largely outside the academic mainstream of tourism studies. economic growth.10 In fact. he queried how far mass tourism would really contribute to poverty alleviation:
More than ever before. conclusions are contradictory. The emergence of pro-poor tourism Since the end of the 1990s a loose alliance of several individuals. has successfully refocused attention in some quarters on the need to consider tourism as a means of alleviating poverty. and increased participation in political decision making. including modernisation and dependency theory. where basic needs approaches were much discussed. There are several accounts of how this association emerged but the outlines are clear. the development community is searching for means that will enable the poor to provide for their basic needs through more productive work. A linked tendency. small-scale.8 Recognising tourism’s contribution to employment. at the end of the 1990s. he was a colleague of Seers at the Institute of Development Studies. empirical evidence on this topic is rare and. many academics continue to doubt tourism’s role as a development tool. as were several of those involved in an equally important collection of papers on the anthropology of tourism. Indeed. anticipating later debates. with ﬁnancial assistance from the World Bank. more widely available social services. they have also tended to deﬂect attention away from the more speciﬁc question of how far tourism does alleviate poverty. Sussex.14 In 1998 the UK Department for International Development (DFID) commissioned DeLoitte and Touche. he also noted it could exacerbate inequalities at international and local levels.

more could be done with a speciﬁc focus on the poor. of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism. second. literature reviews. Uganda. These were followed by other Working Papers that reviewed methods followed in PPT studies and a range of other topics relevant to PPT. communities and community-based tourism enterprises. Johannesburg. produced a range of case studies. designed to show how (largely small-scale) tourism could alleviate poverty by stimulating local involvement.17 Launched at the World Summit for Sustainable Development. However.15
After the 1999 Report Roe and Ashley were joined by Harold Goodwin. the Caribbean and the Czech Republic. partnerships and procurement in numerous destinations. Nepal. international statistics. including NGOs. Strategies focus less on expanding the overall size of tourism. UNWTO followed up the 2002 publication with a series of recommendations on how major stakeholders in tourism could work together to ensure that tourism development was increasingly focused on beneﬁts for the poor.18 In line with the focus on poverty. The ensuing report suggested that. third. often funded by DFID. including the high-proﬁle Sustainable Tourism–End Poverty (ST-EP) campaign of the then World Tourism Organization (the UN appellation was added later).DAVID HARRISON
Institute (ODI). In the ensuing years they and associates in their respective institutions. and the Pro-poor Tourism Partnership (PPTP) was formed. and more on unlocking opportunities for speciﬁc groups within it (on tilting the cake. to report on the extent to which outbound tourism from the UK could contribute to poverty alleviation in destination societies. the case studies focused on partnerships of the private sector. these strategies have to be integrated within general tourism development for two reasons: mainstream activities (such as tourism planning) need to be inﬂuenced by pro-poor perspectives. not expanding it). and showed how companies. which ﬁnances technical assistance projects speciﬁcally geared to poverty alleviation. the ST-EP Trust Fund. The Gambia. the campaign has three dimensions: ﬁrst. which ﬁnances research and cooperation with other organisations to promote poverty alleviation through tourism. including Southern Africa. the incorporation of a poverty component in the UNWTO’s technical assistance programme. the criteria for the success of pro-poor tourism were clearly speciﬁed:
Pro-poor tourism strategies are concerned speciﬁcally with impacts on poor people. including package tour operators in The Gambia. and pro-poor tourism cannot succeed without successful development of the whole tourism destination. and local sourcing and enterprise development in the Caribbean. and. international codes of conduct and standards.19 854
. along with collaborators elsewhere. and local communities might beneﬁt when the latter were brought into direct trading relationships with the former. including coping mechanisms of Kenyans when tourism was in decline. the ST-EP Foundation. though the non-poor may also beneﬁt. while tourism already helped poor countries. in 2002.16 PPTP personnel also made important contributions to other initiatives. In particular.

and more collective beneﬁts.27 the former attempts to change market conditions and inﬂuence the demand for labour. successful PPT depends on the poor having access to markets. In this respect PPT resembles ‘fair trade’. and has never been entirely absent from the academic literature on tourism and development. and perhaps most importantly.23 and implemented by numerous aid agencies. as indicated in Table 2. and is not tied to any theories or models.28 Third.22 Clearly. speciﬁcally PPT approaches. in that it is a form of market intervention. on the commercial viability of PPT projects.25 and the various Working Papers produced by the Pro-Poor Tourism Partnership. on a policy framework that provides a secure investment climate (including access to land). It is not reliant on any such perspective as modernisation or underdevelopment. thus creating a qualitatively ‘better’ product. services and goods provided by the poor. It was implicit in the early emphasis on tourism as a stimulator of jobs and economic growth. PPT is not a speciﬁc theory or model. Rather. and on eﬀective stakeholder co-operation and strategy implementation. wider tourism systems. Second—and crucially—PPT relies on and must be integrated into. and practical questions for workshop participants. The ´ of key issues in sustainable tourism with a initial background paper. sharper and more appealing moral focus on the links poorer residents in destinations have with tourism enterprises. Rather. a resume ‘pro-poor’ gloss. the focus on tourism as an alleviator of poverty is not new. statism or neoliberalism. Nevertheless. including in the development of strategies and policies centred around the concept of basic needs. promoted in the UK by a small group of researchers and consultants since the end of the 1990s.24 seem to have led to a popular. categorised as ‘implementation issues’. available to them.26 the characteristics of PPT can be summarised fairly succinctly. in the work of the World Bank and other agencies. to some extent by others elsewhere. proponents of PPT are not anticapitalist. an 855
.21 More formal collaboration is evident in another summary of key ideas and discussion of possible initiatives and indicators for poverty alleviation through tourism.20 was supported by country case studies purportedly showing how (mainly smallscale) tourism alleviated poverty. simple. First.CRITIQUE OF PRO-POOR TOURISM
Publications (with very similar recommendations) arising from a conference organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Paciﬁc (ESCAP) in 2003 also reveal PPT inﬂuence. Key features of pro-poor tourism Using numerous publications of PPT practitioners as a basis. Whereas the latter attempts to build in ‘added value’ to the product on sale. when reviewing the results of case studies of PPT ﬁnanced by the UK’s DFID. It is not a stand-alone option. As Ashley et al indicate. strategies derived from a PPT perspective are formulated to incorporate the poor into capitalist markets by increasing the employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. it is an orientation.

for example. communitybased tourism (CBT) (where. to collect data and show how the poor are and can be further involved in tourism recognise that the non-poor may also beneﬁt from tourism. or outlining more general changes. education. like. even disproportionately. health. power. skills and education.29 Such methods are clearly relevant to PPT. require wide stakeholder co-operation and commitment.
focus on incorporating the poor into capitalist markets by increasing job and entrepreneurial opportunities and collective beneﬁts. for good or ill. PPT is not a niche type of tourism. It is about ‘development’ focus on community beneﬁts—eg water. can potentially be considered a form of PPT. too. in themselves. Can be from regional or national policies or private sector involvement use numerous methods. etc. etc. including value chain analysis. including national and local authorities. It is less concerned with the relative than the absolute (net) beneﬁts received by the poor have a broad deﬁnition of ‘poverty’. planners. even in its most extreme forms. none of which are speciﬁc to PPT.and small-scale tourism. the private sector. Fifth. comparing the relationship of tourism to pre-existing or new small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). opportunity. the beneﬁts from tourism accruing to the poor may be secondary to conservation or other priorities). eg CBT a speciﬁc method
only about ‘the poor’
just about hunger and no/ inadequate incomes only about individual beneﬁts only for those occupying the ‘moral high ground’
approach to any form of tourism which focuses on the net beneﬁts accruing to poor people in tourist destination areas. targeting or analysis are appropriate only to PPT. including large. sanitation. ideally combining to ensure the poor beneﬁt from tourism
separate from wider tourism systems a theory or model a niche type of tourism. and tourism satellite accounts. Fourth. infrastructure. Like fair trade. but the extent to which the poor do or could receive net beneﬁts from it. and as a consequence. about tourism’s impacts at destination level. detailing the new employment opportunities tourism creates. which relies heavily on the private sector depend on existing tourism structures and markets orientate research to the net beneﬁts from tourism that can or could accrue to the poor apply to any kind or type of tourism. it is a form of market intervention. 856
. but they. The characteristics of pro-poor tourism
PPT
is not
PPT
does
anti-capitalist. tell little. the issue is not so much the kind of tourism involved. statistics of tourist arrivals and expenditure.DAVID HARRISON
TABLE 2. assessing the impacts of capacity building and improvements in welfare. including lack of freedom. in any case. no methods of data collection. and he advocates measuring remittances from tourist areas and household income from tourism enterprises. even if the non-poor also beneﬁt. As Goodwin notes. Mass tourism. and assessing the results of improved market access. And there is no reason why PPT need be associated only (or even at all) with small-scale tourism. are no more speciﬁc to it than examining leakages from destination areas.

CRITIQUE OF PRO-POOR TOURISM
in culture and values. capacity building and training. production networks and value networks31) have sometimes been analysed by proponents of PPT. it is also accepted that non-poor residents of destination areas too may beneﬁt from tourism.34 It is also worth noting that VCA in tourism was preceded by numerous less comprehensive but nevertheless relevant attempts to assess tourism’s relationship with other market sectors.40 Seventh.35 and that some VCA in tourism contexts has tended to cover much the same ground as standard tourism master plans. VCA has been applied somewhat simplistically. tourism can be classiﬁed as ‘‘pro-poor’’ (even if richer people beneﬁt more than poorer people)’. together they can be brought to bear in developing an understanding of how far tourism does or could contribute to poverty alleviation. value chain analysis (VCA) is well established in examinations of diﬀerential market relationships of developing country ﬁrms in other economic sectors.33 This is not to deny its usefulness as a framework for organising data collection. As Ashley notes.from one group to a poorer group. special assistance to SMEs. . value systems. probably because of funding and time constraints.39 And again: ‘as long as poor people reap net beneﬁts.36 While none of the above methods and concerns apply only to PPT. development zones.37 Sixth. Thus helping the poor can mean directly helping the better-oﬀ clients or employers. PPT practitioners deﬁne poverty in such a way as to include noneconomic beneﬁts. it is important to look at the range of potential beneﬁts (and possible negative impacts) and to look at livelihood diversiﬁcation—the focus on pro-poor tourism is on additional and supplementary livelihoods at the individual and household level. In particular. Trying to avoid beneﬁting the non-poor is usually counter-productive’. and indirect employment through micro-enterprise development. for example agriculture in the Caribbean. as indicated by papers on VCA and tourism that make no reference to poverty at all. including co-ordination of ministries. but VCA is not a speciﬁc feature of PPT. attention has focused primarily on linkages within tourism destinations.38 Indeed. PPT strategies are thus considered to include
infrastructure gains. rather than on the wider global context. capacity building. It is far less risky for communities to engage in tourism if that engagement complements their existing livelihood strategies rather than competes with or replaces them. investment. The same can be said of other well established tourism policies and planning approaches. . and so on. demonstration projects. Similarly. PPT may not be focused on the very poorest of society. even to a disproportionately greater extent than the poor: ‘Only occasionally is PPT a matter of transferring gains.32 When speciﬁcally used in collecting and categorising tourism-related economic activities. ‘PPT is not an appropriate tool for reaching the poorest—those with fewest assets and skills who are least able to engage in the commercial economy’.30 All these approaches have long existed in mainstream tourism.41
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. Whilst the main focus is generally on direct employment. and empowerment. all of which have been claimed as essential to PPT. while value chains (known inter alia as global commodity chains.

For this reason the ADB. it is an orientation. Rather. public and private sectors. a business case can be made. its advocates are too comfortable with the status quo and thus miss ‘the big picture’. Rather than attending to the need for structural change. along with provision of potable water and eﬃcient sewage systems. and jetties leading to tourist attractions and poor communities.DAVID HARRISON
Eighth. commercial viability of projects. ﬁrst. second. and addressing international and national power structures. who could oppose the interests of the poor? However. third. PPT is not a case of NGOs and other representatives of civil society working against exploitative capitalism. More speciﬁcally. The ﬁrst. covering nearly all forms of tourism. namely. optimism. and most mentioned. to improve tourism-related infrastructure. as well as having a US$13. ‘feeder roads. government. and co-operation across all stakeholders— national and local authorities. that requires commitment to assisting the poor. to spread the beneﬁts of tourism more widely and to reduce poverty’. as Harrison and Schipani have indicated elsewhere. to ensure that tourism brings net beneﬁts to the poor. conditions are right for capitalist development. criticisms can be made on both conceptual and substantive grounds. or of the promotion of small-scale. international organisations and NGOs—to achieve the aim of PPT. some criticisms that can be levelled at PPT have already been made and. after all. they tacitly accept a neoliberal approach to development and tinker with the capitalistic international tourism system at the edges. is that. community-based tourism against mass tourism. there is already a formal sector involving other tourism stakeholders and. PPT also focuses on wider collective beneﬁts.42 Such infrastructural development. amounts to 858
. and despite the above reference to individual and household levels. It seems so evidently morally correct and. criticising PPT might appear somewhat perverse. even its major proponents are careful to emphasise its limitations. However. piers. and following from the previous point. is a way of spreading beneﬁts as widely as possible. primarily to develop community-based tourism. redistribution of wealth and resources. also has a budget of more than $373 million. indeed. Finally. this is less a theoretical objection than a statement of fact and. Pro-poor tourism: the problems At ﬁrst sight. selected groups of the poor (or relatively poor) in destination areas.43 This criticism is correct in so far as advocates of PPT accept that the approach works best in development destinations where. in eﬀect. high-mindedness and concern for the welfare of the poor are not enough. Conceptual objections Three basic theoretical objections can be made to PPT. aimed at speciﬁc priority development zones. eking out a few resources for small. however.5 million ‘pro-poor and equitable tourism’ component in its Greater Mekong Subregion Tourism Sector Strategy.

generally. . rather than on the type of tourism under investigation. in that any kind of tourism (including sex tourism) that demonstrably increases net incomes of the poor or relatively poor would qualify as PPT. and epitomises a ‘weak sustainability position’. . about varieties of capitalism as political systems. concerning PPT features of Sandals Resorts.47 Echoing the critique that PPT favours capitalism.48 This is largely correct but (again) it is irrelevant. PPT has no obvious record of supporting sex tourism and—with echoes of debates from the 1960s and 1970s about the extent social scientists should be partisan and. Their concerns are more practical. Logically this does seem to be the case. big business. expend much time and eﬀort obtaining external funding. Indeed. they rarely submit their work to academic peer 859
. PPT proponents tend to develop close links with NGOs and international NGOs (INGOs) and. environmental beneﬁts are secondary to poor peoples‘ beneﬁts’. like consultants generally. and see themselves rather as practitioners attempting to improve the beneﬁts that tourism brings to the poor. There are exceptions—for example the co-operation of some large UK companies with the UK’s Travel Foundation. largely from national and international aid agencies. and even some hostility towards. little discussed. as a consequence. and the positive ﬁndings of GTZ. it can be argued that PPT approaches are conceptually blurred and/or ideologically or even morally indiscriminate. a similarly ﬂawed argument could be directed at critics of PPT who voice their objections in books and journals which are part of proﬁt-oriented enterprises. whose side they should take45—its implicit commitment seems to be the development of business opportunities for the poor or the nearly poor. they suggest that it is ‘reformist’ rather than ‘radical’. supportive or otherwise. . Jamaica46—but they are rare and miniscule in scale.CRITIQUE OF PRO-POOR TOURISM
little more than ‘a crude repackaging’ of 1970s and 1980s underdevelopment perspectives. Fourth. as with sustainable tourism development. the theoretical marginality of PPT as an orientation and a series of practices is reinforced and reﬂected in the personal marginality of its practitioners. As indicated earlier. That said. However. with little attention paid to. the German Aid Agency. As Chok et al indicate. both to the business world of tourism and to academia. and . Second. .44 That PPT advocates operate within a capitalist context is valid as a statement but not as a criticism. as the deﬁnition of pro-poor tourism focuses on the results of tourism as they have an impact upon the poor. if so. the extent to which support for local (as opposed to international) capital should be an explicit priority for PPT adherents might well be a subject for serious consideration Third. irrespective of their own beliefs. an independent charity. current practice is rather diﬀerent. Unfortunately. PPT practitioners make no claims for theoretical expertise or sophistication. Lacking permanent academic posts and (relative) ﬁnancial security. the focus ‘on poor people in the South reﬂects a strong anthropocentric view . They make no claim to be theorists. the situation of PPT within debates over sustainability is theoretically imprecise and. from which (unsurprisingly) PPT seems to attract little but token support.

‘reformist’. this is more so for CBT Does not set out to analyse such problems and has limited involvement with mass tourism
PPT
Substantive
Theoretically imprecise. By treating destinations as bounded communities. and are summarised in Table 3. By contrast. Problems relating to pro-poor tourism
Conceptual or substantive Conceptual Problem Tacitly accepts neoliberal status quo Morally indiscriminate—any tourism can be Comment True but irrelevant. focuses only on bounded destinations Does not deliver (enough?) beneﬁts to the poor
No clear link of PPT with poverty alleviation. Substantive issues Some substantive problems arise from the conceptual issues outlined above. There is accuracy in this criticism. for example. ‘normal’ tourism may also be PPT Fails to consider equity or to try and change the overall system Ignores markets and commercial viability Ignores problems and PPT features of mass tourism
860
. They also tend to remain outside (and largely ignorant of) academic debates.PPT private sector Probably the case? True—but is quite explicit about this False. but not shown to be more eﬀective than non. Second. and the insights of adherents of PPT are similarly ignored or underrated in academic circles. thus making future advancement in the academic sphere unlikely. by implication. First. only the ‘poor’ or ‘near poor’ within the boundaries are considered suitable beneﬁciaries.DAVID HARRISON
review and recognised academic journals. unintended and undeserving beneﬁciaries. not a theory Conceptually so but not in practice True but irrelevant. with the added result that a huge body of academic writing is more or less ignored by PPT. PPT’s focus on residents of destination areas is conceivably too narrow and parochial. or adequate beneﬁts. but it arises more from practical constraints resulting from shortages of funds and from the need to limit the timeframe and scope of projects. than from any conceptual or ideological orientation. on enterprises and entrepreneurship. holding position of ‘weak sustainability’ Academically and commercially marginal Narrow and parochial. and that the
TABLE 3. including value chain analysis. not a theory True True but is more a ﬁnancial than conceptual constraint Little evidence available. to the poor. even though it is accepted that the economic position of non-poor locals may also be improved as a result of PPT initiatives. incoming migrants working in tourism and others living outside the boundaries are. there are several arguments to the eﬀect that PPT projects have simply not delivered beneﬁts.

it has been argued that. by supporting capitalism. equally clearly. rather than alleviate. PPT initiatives ‘undercut ‘‘sustainable livelihoods’’ and exacerbate. and that their interest is in the local picture and relief of local poverty. there is no empirical evidence for this view. some of the non-poor may do so.50 In any case. especially islands and small states. In response to such arguments. it is accepted by some PPT practitioners that. rigorous assessments of incomes and expenditures in PPT projects (and. Even more radically (and cynically) it could be argued that the revolutionary cause would be advanced by the continued impoverishment of the poor.55 although it is also recognised that enthusiasm sometimes wanes as dependency on tourism increases. however.CRITIQUE OF PRO-POOR TOURISM
term ‘pro-poor’ tourism is a misnomer. although the poorest in society may not beneﬁt at all from PPT initiatives. especially among environmentalists. for instance.53 Systematic comparative monitoring of revenues against costs is rare. As indicated earlier.57 Clearly. is one such critic. that. and in line with the above. by deﬁnition intangible beneﬁts are hard to calculate. as indicated earlier. indeed. as for a landmark ecotourism project in Lao PDR. which seems to rest on the (unfounded) assumption that. but more strongly. even when speciﬁc categories of poor are not targeted. in many other forms of aid) are diﬃcult to ﬁnd. the private sector gives better value for money.54 In such circumstances it is perhaps unsurprising that oﬃcial recipients of international aid programmes. It has been claimed.49 But. and thus any attempt to spread the beneﬁts of tourism more widely serves capitalism and delays the onset of revolution.56 and many claims are made for the role of conventional tourism in alleviating poverty.52 Again. proponents of PPT can quite explicitly indicate that they are interested more in the absolute than the relative beneﬁts to the poor of PPT. those who remain are somehow subjected to further deprivation. Third. it can be argued that no clear links exist between PPT initiatives and poverty reduction. it is often impossible to calculate the beneﬁts PPT initiatives do bring to communities. if the plight of some of the poor is relieved. initiatives not normally associated with PPT may perform pro-poor functions. there are 861
. as indicated in Table 4. low-cost airlines are a major form of 58 PPT. Similarly.51 Similarly. Unpopular though this argument might be. they do not argue that the poor have received no beneﬁts at all. and where an attempt has been made to do this. while her sources suggest tourism beneﬁts have been distributed unevenly. however. it clearly has some merit but. Scheyvens. even though they were not speciﬁcally targeted by PPT strategies. it is clear that. adopt PPT terminology and rhetoric but actually assess the success of aid programmes according to increased numbers of tourists rather than more formal PPT criteria. poverty’. have moved out of the ‘least developed’ category. for example. surveys in destination areas consistently indicate that residents believe they have beneﬁted economically from tourism. That said. Many countries most dependent on tourism for their GDP. because they open up areas previously inaccessible to tourists. according to strictly ﬁnancial criteria. and sometimes donors. rather than in grandiose schemes for the overthrow of capitalism.

there is substance to this criticism but. However. international equity
necessitates both ideological and systemic change . the impact of any PPT projects. who are the prime targets. any more than abolishing the use of child labour in making carpets requires the cessation of carpet manufacture.61 Even more generally. As in development matters generally. closer attention would have to be paid to the role of the state. The former include poor labour conditions in tourism destinations. PPT practitioners recognise the need for co-operation among numerous stakeholders and a wide range of policy and planning initiatives. In the absence of an ideal developmental state and a more egalitarian global economic system. from PPT projects as the poor. ‘few [CBT] projects have generated suﬃcient beneﬁts to either provide incentives for conservation—the objective of ecotourism—or contribute to local poverty reduction’. it applies most to CBT projects. PPT advocates can legitimately argue that they are not a campaigning pressure group. with which PPT has often (but quite wrongly) been associated. overthrow capitalism. as well as to the wider world system. as PPT advocates have noted. on their own. even if on a large scale. In eﬀect. ‘anti-poor practices’ of low wages. is likely to be limited unless a state’s entire tourism strategy is constructed around the aim of poverty alleviation. Fifth.64 Again. PPT is accused of failing to confront mass tourism. At the local level it is a feature of ‘propoor tourism’ to encourage government. 863
.CRITIQUE OF PRO-POOR TOURISM
criticism.63 Sixth. or even more. . that the existence of poor and exploitative working conditions does not invalidate the existence of an entire tourism industry.59 and there is nothing to stop governments committed to poverty reduction from using redistributive ﬁscal or other mechanisms to transform virtually any form of tourism into PPT. it can be argued that PPT has often failed to take suﬃcient account of commercial viability and access to markets. PPT requires a developmental state. It is also worth noting. Rather. their role is to assist the poor to obtain more of the tourism ‘cake’. however. as indicated earlier.62
This is surely the case. it is surely legitimate for advocates of PPT to note that they have to work in the real world. as unease is understandable if the relatively wealthy beneﬁt as much. These are not the same and. Such ideological change would need to be accompanied by a change in the international system so that developing countries are granted greater decision-making power in institutions such as the World Trade Organisation. but returns the debate to the issue of how far PPT initiatives can. while such conditions clearly exist. and so on. either its ‘problems’ or its PPT features. with NGO and INGO representatives preferring instead to seek aid money for projects which have been subject to little or no prior costing. aid agencies and the private sector to develop entrepreneurial linkages for the poor in the tourism supply chain. as Goodwin suggests.60 For redistribution really to be the focal point of PPT. Again. .

a distinctive approach to tourism as a development tool. However. The extent to which such criticisms are valid has been discussed in the paper. they have been taken. that it is morally indiscriminate and theoretically imprecise. and is not a niche form of tourism. their absence is related less to a reluctance on the part of potential researchers than to the shortage of research funds or other support to analyse such linkages. in brief.DAVID HARRISON
From a diﬀerent perspective PPT advocates are alleged to have ignored the pro-poor characteristics of mass tourism which. in developing projects.66 Nevertheless. indeed. When opportunities to study mass tourism and poverty alleviation have emerged. and even to demonstrate clear links between PPT and poverty alleviation. and that its practitioners are academically and commercially marginal. Conclusion In this paper an attempt has been made to examine the emergence of propoor tourism initiatives in the wider context of development studies. that criticisms focusing on the 864
. on which it relies. such co-operation is both minimal and exceptional. PPT tends to ignore the crucial role of markets and fails to consider the need for commercial viability and. that its adherents ignore both the ‘problems’ and the existing PPT features and potential of mass tourism. it returns us to the development debates of the 1970s and 1980s. that it far easier to discuss what PPT is not than what it is! It is neither anticapitalist nor hostile to mainstream tourism. and hoteliers and tour operators have been even less prepared to oﬀer funding assistance than have government and other aid agencies. as indicated in Table 3. it has no distinctive method. The conclusion is that it is not distinctive and. as noted above and in Table 4. It is also claimed that. In general transnational company commitment is largely rhetorical. critics have argued that PPT is based on an acceptance of the status quo of existing capitalism. It has been concluded. methodologically sound empirical studies of mass tourism and its impacts. and an attempt has been made in this paper to confront these objections and consider the extent to which they have some validity. however. There is substance in this criticism for.65 there are few detailed. and to ask whether or not PPT is. ﬁnally. by incorporating individual and collective non-economic criteria in its deﬁnition of poverty. it is neither a theory nor a model. on which PPT relies for relatively small handouts. Indeed. Critics of PPT have focused on several conceptual and substantive issues. critics also point to a similar failure to focus on equitable distribution of beneﬁts or to make any attempt to change the overall system. In summary. clearly makes a valuable contribution to many national economies. More substantive criticisms include accusations of narrowness and parochialism. in fact. often in co-operation with major hoteliers and tour operators. and is not only (and sometimes not at all) about the poor. while there are critiques from such pressure groups as Tourism Concern. a failure to ‘deliver’ beneﬁts from tourism to the poor.

at least in part. however. 865
. and numerous national and international aid agencies. but which has too often been subsumed under a welter of theorising. International tourism is big business. their insistence on examining the most basic impacts of tourism and on bringing about direct and quantiﬁable change. as it is currently framed and understood. which consistently runs the risk of being hijacked by those who seek to claim the high moral ground. In return. and the more ‘moral’ product. are its contributions to poverty alleviation. to submit their work to critical academic scrutiny. This would undoubtedly take time. PPT is a stated concern with the poor—a moral injunction—which is sometimes reﬂected in the application of fairly standard social scientiﬁc techniques of data collection and analysis by practitioners (as opposed to theorists) who have obtained funds to assess actual and/or future linkages of poverty alleviation and tourism. Such an association would then allow those in the academic community with an active interest in tourism as a development tool to seek closer associations with national and international development agencies. is negative. they seem to have cut through much of the development debate and have appealed to many NGOs and INGOs. on both counts. the net beneﬁts of tourism to the poor. Rather. and the conclusion reached here is that. the more ‘responsible’ (and less capitalistic) tourism. Does this mean that PPT has no future? That it is a perspective or orientation which should be abandoned? The answer to both questions. In concentrating on a very simple—and incontrovertibly moral—idea. will revive in tourism studies a moral dimension which was there in the 1970s and 1980s. they accept most of the more substantive criticisms. PPT practitioners have been remarkably eﬀective in getting their message across and increasing the focus on poverty. it is found wanting. whose oﬃcials have often incorporated PPT in their own missions. The fact that they have remained academically and commercially marginal is. in addition. recognising that they are working within a context of international capitalism and that their initiatives may bring little beneﬁt to the poorest members of communities.CRITIQUE OF PRO-POOR TOURISM
theoretical inadequacies of PPT are misplaced. and that. especially those involved in development studies. The main question. but there is little future in eking out small grants and looking at the impacts of eco-lodges on small communities. an incipient pressure group. its impacts are big and so too. to engage with the academic community. is how far pro-poor tourism can be considered truly distinctive in its approach or methods. namely. It is suggested here that the way forward for PPT proponents is to become part of the academic mainstream. and with major sections of international tourism. it could also be described as a movement. At the same time. because of a lack of funding. There is no future on the academic fringe. arguably. normally with a view to improving the individual or collective lot of ‘the poor’ (broadly deﬁned). simply because PPT advocates make no claim to be making any theoretical contribution. the commitment of PPT adherents. and to participate in the major debates. it is suggested. And they could be greater.

11 (4). Annals of Tourism Research. and whom it beneﬁts. There is no future. Current Issues in Tourism. Theories and Practices of Development. p 196. stakeholder. 2005. pp 2–6. Clevedon: Channel View Publications. in fundamentalism. pp 93–96. 3 A Leftwich. 2000. and D Telfer. London: Pan Books. ‘Pro-poor tourism: putting poverty at the heart of the tourism agenda’. and on understanding the wider issues. New York: Oxford University Press. 13 D Harrison & S Schipani. 1977. When looking at tourism and its contributions. keynote address to the international conference on ‘Pro-poor Tourism: Mechanisms and Mainstreaming’. 2002. D Roe & H Goodwin. 2001. 2003. 2002. pp 235–236. 2007. in such circumstances. the development of tourism in its various forms. 16 C Ashley. ‘The new meaning of development’. States of Development: On the Primacy of Politics in Development. London: Overseas Development Institute. 2006. 8 E de Kadt (ed). This must be the basis of ‘action research’. ‘The evolution of tourism and development theory’. and Willis. London: Routledge. context.
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. 15 Department for International Development (DFID). London: Routledge. and ADB. International Development Review. The earlier theoretical debates have not gone away. However. 34 (2). ‘Lao tourism and poverty alleviation’. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies. rather. International Institute for Responsible Tourism and Centre for Responsible Tourism. 10 (2–3). id21 insights. 8. p 282. to ‘development’. Current Issues in Tourism. if any. ‘Exploring the tourism–poverty nexus’. p 1. 1980. As in the 1970s tourism can be regarded as a blessing or a blight. Much depends on the observer. Building on Success: A Strategic Framework for the Next Ten Years of the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program. for the World Bank and UNESCO. C Ashley. while its active practitioners continue to seek both proﬁtable (and undoubtedly useful) consultancies. as globalisation has accelerated.DAVID HARRISON
The alternatives? PPT can stay on the academic and commercial margins of tourism. 62. Tourism: Passport to Development?. pp 58–60. 12 E Rodenburg. ‘The World Bank’s role in tourism development’. Theories and Practices of Development. Regional Technical Assistance 5893: Mekong/Lancang River Tourism Infrastructure Development Project. 10 (1). Manila: ADB. 19 (3). Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues. 1978. What continues to be needed is a balanced approach to. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1987. ‘The meaning of development’. 14 H Goodwin. how it is articulated. ‘How pro-poor is tourism?’. 7 (2). ﬁnancially wasteful. 2007. and Seers. 1979. 6 Asian Development Bank (ADB). Paper 51. p xii. p 263. International Development Review. Malaysia. pp 61–63. Our Comment Future. 1999. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. and R Scheyvens. London: Overseas Development Institute. and no easy moral short cut. methodologies and mainstreaming’. 1999. 2000. 5 DE Hawkins & S Mann. ‘The eﬀects of scale in economic development: tourism in Bali. Cambridge: Polity Press. Current Issues in Tourism. Tourism and Sustainability: Development and New Tourism in the Third World. 1969. Notes
1 K Willis. Manila: ADB. Universiti Teknologi. London: DFID. pp 196–198. 9 Ibid. North–South: A Programme for Survival (The Brandt Report). targeted action and policy formulation. pp 2–7. they have become more complex. Tourism and Poverty Elimination: Untapped Potential. ‘Lao tourism and poverty alleviation: community-based tourism and the private sector’. ‘Towards developing a framework for analysing tourism phenomena: a discussion’. pp 348–363. D Roe. there is no quick ﬁx. or logic. Pro-poor Tourism Strategies: Making Tourism Work for the Poor—A Review of Experience. 4–6 May 2005. 2 D Seers. and research over time on. 4 Report of the Independent Commission on International Development. 11 D Harrison. 10 (2–3). Harrison & Shipani. ‘Pro-poor tourism: principles. Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism. pp 3. in R Sharpley & DJ Telfer (eds). Annals of Tourism Research. 2007. 10 VL Smith (ed). and World Commission on Environment and Development. 7 M Mowforth & I Munt. their practical eﬀects will be minimal and. quite probably. pp 177–196. 1980.